April 22, 2009

This week at FH, we are going to visit Pondicherry/Puducherry in Tamil Nadu to have a Indo-French vegetarian Butternut and Potato Bisque, then we will taste the most popular American State Fair dessert "Funnel Cake" and then we visit my paternal grandmother's halli mane for some authentic Karnataka farm food, Huruli Kattu and Usli. Are you ready? ;D

About Puducherry:

Formerly known as Pondicherry/Pondichéry (in French), Puducherry (means new Village) which is located in Tamil Nadu, was renamed in 2006, is a "Union Territory of India" . It is a former French colony, consisting of four non-contiguous districts, two in Tamil Nadu, one in Andhra and one in Kerala and it's named after the largest district, Puducherry. Because of it's beautiful coastal/beach location, a very popular resort area, it is also known as The French Riviera of the East.

The 4 official languages of Puducherry are Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and French, with English as the connecting language of 4 districts. As a result, cuisine of Puducherry is influenced by French, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam cooking. Indo-French is a one of the popular cuisines. Here is the photo of beautiful house in Puducherry and these infos are from here and WIKIPEDIA.

Indo-French Butternut Squash and Potato Bisque:I made the vegetarian Bisque with Indian touch using Butternut Squash and Potato with lots of fresh herbs form my pots. It smelled so good and was very tasty. Usually, Bisque is made of Heavy cream which I am sure tastes creamy and delicious. But I used some Buttermilk for tanginess and fat free Half and half to make the sauce in this recipe to cut down the calories.

To make veg Bisque:1. Heat 1 tbsp butter and 1 tsp Canola oil in a deep pan. Add the "French Trinity" or "Mirepoix" as it is called; 1 medium, onion, 1 Celery and 1 Carrot, all chopped, along with 2-3 minced garlic, saute until just soft.2. Add 2 cups peeled and cubed Butternut Squash and one large Potato (red or Russet will do), peeled and cubed, stir for 3 mins.3. Add 3 cups of vegetable stock or just water, 2 tbsp of fresh mixed Herbs, pinch of salt, 1 tsp Cumin seeds pd and 1/4 tsp dry red chilli flakes (Indian touch!). Cover and let it cook.4. Add Herbs of your choice or Herbes de Provence, simmer on low heat. Add 1/4 cup Buttermilk, 1/2 cup Half and Half or heavy cream, mix well and simmer gently, never let it boil.5. Once cooked, use a hand blender stick to smoothen the sauce to creamy or pour the sauce into a blender carefully and blend until smooth. Pour back into the pan, simmer for 2 mins.(If you are adding small cleaned Shrimps (1 cup), add them now and simmer the Bisque for 5-7mins, until the Shrimps turn pink.)6. Serve with fresh Chives, parsley sprinkled on it and with a few seasoned Croutons.Enjoy! :)

State Fair and Carnival Funnel Cake sprinkled with sugar pd and served with fruity low sugar Strawberry jam on the side:Gigantic American style Indian Jalebi anyone? Hahaha. Funnel cakes are exactly that, without dunked in Safforny sugar syrup but sprinkled generously with Confectioner's sugar/powdered Sugar. Every State Fair and Carnival in USA has these Funnel cakes, freshly fried and loaded with sugar, huge enough for 4-6 people to eat. Even (Dolly Parton's) Dollywood Theme park in Tennessee has these cakes sold there, my kids love to eat these loaded with sugar pd!They say that Funnel cake batter is made of "pâte à choux" pastry batter but I made this the easy way, adding egg is optional. It's crispy on the edges and soft in the middle. For pouring the batter, you can use Plastic Mustard or Ketchup bottle with a 1/4" small hole in the lid or pour the batter thru' a small funnel, basically anything with narrow spout atleast 1/4" to 1/2" opening. Batter should be thick but pourable like Jalebi batter. Watch the video I have linked below.

Here is how you make it: (makes 2 or 3 Funnel cakes)1. Whisk 1 Egg (optional, makes it fluffy if you add Egg), 1/2 to 3/4 cup milk, 2 tbsp Sugar, pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp Baking powder and then add 1 1/4 cup plain flour, mix well until you don't see the lumps and batter is thick but pourable consistency.2. Heat oil to 365F in a deep bottomed Kadai or small deep fryer to get a perfectly round cakes. Pour the batter into a Ketchup or Mustard jar, squeeze the batter into the oil quickly, first in 3-4 circles and then crisscross over the circles to make a big lacy circle.3. Let it get golden on one side, flip gently and cook the other side. Drain, cool it and serve generously sprinkled with powdered sugar.You can pile up the fresh fruit or whipped cream or drizzle with chocolate Ganache on top of the Funnel cake to serve. Enjoy.

Watch this video to see how to make these Funnel cakes. Here is a site where you can buy all those gadgets like plastic Funnel and ring you may need to make these yummy Funnel cakes, these are not necessary things as I made without them but good to have options! :)********************************************************************************************************************************************************

Shama wanted us to talk about our traditional village food and say something about the village. Well...I was born and raised in the cities around Karnataka, only visited my grandparents' once a year during Summer holidays, mostly visited my maternal grandparents near Belur almost every year, but I am most influenced by my parental grandparents who own and live in a coconut, sugarcane (made golden colored Jaggery in the farm too), Mango grove and Paddy farm few miles away from Mysore. My father moved away from his birthplace as a teenager for schooling, graduated from Law college, practiced Law and became a Judge eventually. So we always lived in the cities, visited the farm once a year.

Although I don't want to reveal the name (with what else but a very Lingayat name of course! :D) of the farm here for their privacy, our visits to them were not more than 2 days in a year. My thatha was a "Gowda", a Panchayat chief of 8 villages (a 5 men elected for a small scale village court), a loud mouth with a big heart, also was a much feared man in his community too! Somebody has to take care of the stuff before it hits the fan (or the city court), right? Can't blame him! ;P

I loved that simple, rustic, uncomplicated, non-pretentious and peaceful life of my paternal grandparents' place, learned a lot about unselfish, unconditional, pure love (to them, love is also to make you drink freshly "squeezed/milked" warm frothy cow's milk loaded with homemade Jaggery! That's whole another story about "feeding" the loved ones in the villages! OYYY!:D) from my Thatha, ajji, aunts and Uncles. As a result, most of my traditional Karnataka cooking is influenced by my Mysore ajji, from whom my mother learnt basic cooking as a very new young teenage daughter in law!

I have copied most of the recipes of my ajji from my mother's old notebook and now I am writing down one of them, which is authentic and very rustic recipe made from the reduced stock of Horse gram or Hurulikalu water reduced to paste with spices and eaten with homemade Ghee and rice.

What can I say about the village/farm itself? Well..my paternal family own most of the village since all of my grandfather's brothers, sisters, their kids and grand kids lived there for years! They all own their own piece of property with their homes built inside their farms and they literally live few yards from each other. So once we visit the village, it's like visiting the half of the family in one place and we are constantly fed by each one of those families, mostly coconut filled sweets and more coconutty savory dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner with loads of fresh of the tree coconut water to sip!I still remember the sweet aroma of Sugarcane juice bubbling in the gigantic Cauldron until it turns into dark thick molasses first and then turn into golden (my thatha had his "secret" recipe! :D) square Jaggery cooling in the wooden moulds.Whole village would be filled with sweet smell of Bella/Jaggery!I remember my mother being petrified every time we kids ran off to the farm which has a huge uncovered irrigation well, a pump house and deep water tank always filled with water. She always was afraid of us drowning in one of these since we loved to get in the tank and sit there neck deep in the water for hrs in the hot afternoons. Great memories! :D

Halli mane Oota; Anna, Tuppa, Huruli Kattu, Hurulikalu Usli, Happala. Slurp!! Phew! That's some family revelation! Okay.. Here is my Hallimane oota aka"village food", a wonderful thick and spicy sauce which is delicious and can be kept bottled up in the fridge for few weeks. You need dry Hurulikalu/Horsegram/Kulith/Kollu and a pressure cooker to make this. Don't know whether we can use any other beans, may be Avarekalu/Field beans/Lilva but this Huruli Kattu always made with Hurulikalu by my ajji. Kattu literally means "reduced sauce" in Kannada, a loooong process, cooking and boiling down the beans stock for days in my Ajji's kitchen but why bother with all that when we have Microwave? ;D

Anna/Rice, Tuppa/Ghee with thick and spicy Huruli Kattu/sauce:

Cook the beans first to get the stock:1. Take 2-3 cups of dry Horse gram beans, make sure you clean to carefully pick the stones off of the dry beans. Most of the time if you bought the pack from Indian store, you do find tiny stones which look exactly like the beans but will cost you a tooth or a root canal if you don't take them out.Spread a handful of beans at a time on a wide plate, look for stones, tedious job but necessary!2. Soak overnight in lots of water in a big pot. Next day, wash the beans and drain all the water.3. Add about 10 cups or more water to the soaked beans, 2 tsp salt and pressure cook the beans on a medium heat for about 15mins. Beans must be soft cooked but not mushy. These beans are tough to cook, so you need longer time on medium heat.3. Once the pressure is out, open the lid and pour in to a colander to drain all beans stock into another bowl, let the beans sit until all the water is drained. Keep the dry beans separately to make Usli (seasoned beans) later. If you have too much Beans for your family, you can freeze some in individual zip lock bags for later use or make Huruli chutney, Rasam, Saaru, side dishes etc with the beans. Idea here to get the as much stock as you can out of the beans, use the cooked and drained beans for seasoned side dish. We will use the stock to reduce with spices until you get a thick sauce.

Huruli Kattu/thick sauce made of Horse Gram stock and spices:Serve hot cooked rice with a dollop of home made ghee on top and a tbsp of Huruli kattu on the side or on top, a crunchy papad and Hurulikalu Usli on the side. To eat, mix rice with ghee and Kattu to a thick sauce coated bite sized rice morsel and chomp away!:D

Dry roast and powder these first to use as much as you need in the sauce:

To make thick and spicy Huruli Kattu:Add salt and masala pd only after the sauce is reduced to 1/3rd, adding before might make it too salty when concentrated to thick sauce.

1. Instead of cooking for hours on end on the stove top (you can do that too if you like), take all the reserved stock water from the cooked gram in a big deep enough dish, add 1 tsp oil to prevent spilling over and put it in the Microwaveand cook on high 100% for 20 mins, uncovered.2. Keep repeating the cooking time in the MW until the stock is reduced to 1/3rd. Add salt, 1 tsp or to your taste thick Tamarind paste from the jar and 2 tbsp ground masala powder, mix well.3. Once you add the masala pd, be careful not to burn the sauce in the MW, cook 2 mins at a time and less until you get a thick pouring consistancy like you see in the photo. Add 1 tbsp Ghee, mix well. (You see some Horse gram Beans in my sauce above which is okay, adds to the texture but should use only the stock/water from the cooked beans to make the traditional Huruli Kattu)4. Adjust the salt, chilli and masala taste by adding more powder if you like. Heat one more minute after adding powder, cool completely and store in the glass jar. (sometimes, my mother used to add 2 tomatoes too when reducing this sauce, but always optional)

To make Hurulikalu Usli/seasoned Horsegram/Kulith:

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a non-stick pan, add 1 tsp mustard seeds, few curry leaves, 3 slit green chillies, fry until they sizzle and pop.2. Add 1-2 onions, chopped fine and fry until they golden brown on the edges, add 1/4 tsp salt, mix.3. Add 4 tbsp chopped Cilantro, mix. Add 2-3 cups of cooked Beans now, stir fry well for 1 minute until heated thru'.4. Take off the heat, let it cool. Adjust the salt. Cover and keep it aside to serve with Kattu , ghee and rice or you can serve this Usli with any other Sambhar and rice on the side.5. This Usli is also a favorite to serve with Ragi Mudde and Uppusaaru (I will post that recipe some other time)

**********************************************************************************************************Movies I watched:"Maine Gandhi ko nahin Maara!"I watched this movie thinking that it's about the Gandhi's assassination but movie is about a retired man who is suffering from Dementia and haunted by a childhood memory/abuse and keeps saying that he didn't mean to kill Gandhi when he shot at him with a toy gun. He was dragged into court on suspicion of participation in the killing although he was little boy at that time. Well acted by Anupam Kher as usaul and Urmila Matondkar is great too for a change!"Mistress of Spices"Voodoo spice queen, Aishwarya! :DStory is little weird as the book is but I like that spunky, beautiful Ash girl, so I watched and liked it. Just glad that at least one actress from Bollywood has the guts to deal with different subjects however foreign it feels and do well at that instead of wear short shorts and run around the trees singing in Hinglish!

"The Wrestler"Mickey Rourke's come back film after many years, who plays middle aged down on luck pro wrestler. He was Oscar nominated for best actor. Movie gets you very emotional to see his struggle with his career and with his daughter and great movie to watch (very very bloody, violent and gory tho'). Rourke is excellent in it, movie is specially great for people who love Wrestling, but personally I just couldn't get past how he looks in this movie. It's very weird to see him, felt like I am watching a wax robot walking around because of his botched cosmetic surgery on his face. I think guys surely will enjoy this movie than us girls, but good movie to watch at least once! I love Marisa Tomei in any film! :)

I watched many many Horror movies but nothing worth mentioning except may be SAW V, so I am not listing any here! :D

Book I am currently reading:

"Dreams from my father" by Barack Obama.

Just started reading this book. Very interesting and articulately written by our Prez when he was still a law student.I read in a magazine that he wears a Hanuman charm on his bracelet he wears, it always puzzled me. Not anymore!! As he says in the book, a 6' Hanuman statue was the first thing his stepfather (Lolo, who was a Indonesian) showed him when he first moved from US to Indonesia with his mother after she married her second husband and he was told that Hanuman is a great warrior Monkey God and has the strength of hundred men, nobody defeats him! :DObama seems to have a great time in Indonesia playing with kids there as he grew up, talks about having eaten dog meat, Snake meat etc and having lot of exotic pets like an Ape to play with too and later moving to Hawaii to be with his grand parents when his mom divorced her second husband too. We can read about him meeting his father's family in Kenya, college in New York (when he hears that his dad in Kenya died in an car accident) and then career move to Chicago and meeting the Mrs etc., rest is history!!Barack Obama talks about his Kenyan Father as a charming guy and a scholar student who attracted everybody's attention when he talked but Obama never really knew him as a young child. He seems to have a very confused and emotionally insecure childhood, not knowing where he belonged. I heard him once call himself a "Mutt" on CNN, comparing himself to the Animal shelter dogs when they were talking about adopting a dog for his kids!Well..I am still reading the rest, intriguing book to read which lets you take a peek of his past and present life, his life experiences, why he is so charming and readily accepting of all the other cultures and religions. A global President, thanks God for that! Isn't that cool? Let's see how well he manages and where he takes us from here! :)

Thanks to all the bloggers who awarded me last week. Hugs to all of you, I have added your names on the side bar. Thanks again, mush appreciated by me.

Okay, enjoy the Earth day today and let me sign off quickly before all Y'all good people hit me for writing the longest post! Have a wonderful fun week and weekend. Our weekend will be hot, almost 89F as they tell us! :)

Posted by
Asha

137 comments:

Am awestuck to see all these delicious dishes together, once again i admire ur spirit of making out loads of wonderful dishes...i cant take my eye out of ur funnel cake, its really new to me..Ashakka all ur entries looks very fabulous and tremendous!

Congratulation to u all of you for Trisha's success. She looks good in that black dress.

As always, I am still seeing ur snaps again and again because they are so delish. Lovely Pondicherry dishes. Veg Bisque and Funnel Cake look so yum. And, good to know about how u were brought up and the village.

All dishes are looking soo yumm, fennel cake is very different heard first time about it..:) reading your post brought back lot of good old memories when we used to visit my mom's native place during summer vacations..:)

I thought I had left a comment earlier but can't find.. well, I have been reading your blog for quite some time now. I had a question regarding making medhu vadas using ultra grinder. Can you please tell me how much water to add? The grinder does not move without watter, and for medhu vada there should be no water, so I am just curious. I really appreciate your help. Thanks in advance!

Hearty congrats to your daughter. My heart lies in Pondicherry!!!! absolutely loved the place when we lived there.Still do :) So lovely to read about your villageAs usual stunning pictures that make me extremely hungry :))

Wow Asha got to know your Indian background, I have never seen jaggery been made, hi hi even my mom was afraid we would fall into the well even in our place :-)I love the soup you have made with spices, i am sure going to ty and love the soup bowl which you have served too.And the traditional dishes must say i have not heard even. Would love to to try them though.....Congrats to Trisha again.

We wer ein pondicherry few years back for few days and really enjoyed there.I would say if you want to have a rest holidays go there as it is beautiful and the french bread is so yummy there.

Jai Ho to Trisha! And I enjoyed reading about your village. We make that horsegram dish too - I don't even attempt it at home because it's not the same without the smoked flavour - it's buried in the ground and cooked slowly - it's a great delicacy and is being exported too, for the NRIs!

Congrats to your daughter. That bisque looks awesome!!& what lovely read. Really enjoyed this post.we always see the funnel cakes, but really never thought about jalebis when i saw them. Now i do:-) the sauce looks very rich. lovley color too.

Ajji's huruli kattu!!! Wow! Asha, I should give this special dish a try. I have kollu at home.

And the stones! so glad you mentioned it. After one episode of stone after stone after stone from my kollu kulambu (all those stones went to DH, by some weird twist of fate), I always always pick them and repeat the process of picking stones all over again.

DH is a big fan of Obama (meeee too!) and is also a big autobiography reader. He'd LOVE this book. I'll get it for him as a surprise. Thanks for writing about it.

I love funnel cake and usli. Thank you very much for the soup recipe. I didn't check my emails 3-4 days. Just yday I saw ur email. Today I will try ur soup & let you know.

Here we had lovely wkend but from 2days it's raining here :(

I also want to watch Mistress of Spices. I am also Ash's fan but now I don't like her behavior. When she comes on US TV she acts like I am not from this world ..I am extraordinary. We know she is special but she don't have show by her behavior :(

I was going through post again and again like sort of loading all these pictures into my memory ;) The funnel cake looks gorgeous with the sugar dusting! Congrats on your daughter's achievement dear :)

I hope Trisha won't forget to crack all those amazing Indian jokes like the God tussi great ho one after she starts college. Congrats to her and wishing her a great future.I loved reading about your village...brought back sweet memories. You never cease to amaze me with all these wonderful dishes and yeah I tried that Funnel Cake once and had to eat up the whole thing bcoz my family refused to eat so much sugar and I tell you for almost a week I didn't even touch a bar of chocolate. Loved your spread as usual

Nice to see ur daughter dear. She makes all of us proud.Thanks for bringing out the long forgotten Indo french cuisine . Soup looks royal. Lovely thoughts on ur village. No one can forget such a nice childhood days.Now I know the secrets of ur passion for cooking:)Horse gram dishes makes me drolling. Nowadays I can't see horsegram in Indian store, may be I should search more.Funnel cake demo is great.Dreams from my Father is a great book to read. No wonder that Barack loves all religions and Hanuman. (I am sure every one will love Hanuman). Thats an admirable character love love all Gods and cultures. Lucky that we got such a nice person.Happy Earh day dear!

Oh my God! You've a never ending source of enthu to make so many yummy dishes! Your family is really lucky. Squash looks awesome. Not into sweets these days, but the funnel cake would've been yummy I guess cuz you say its already gone! Between congrats to Trisha. :) Njoy your weeken & see you soon.

AshaSimply, loved, loved reading your post about your thatha, ajji and the village. I have never visited a Indian village for more than an hour say, small towns but no village. I loved the picture you painted and your traditional food.Horsegram is very nutrutious, we don't cokk it that much and now I want to try it. My Dad has recently taken to drinking water in which Kulith has been soaked, has some great medicinal value it seems.

Crunchy croutons on top of creamy bisque looks so inviting! nice idea to substitute buttermilk and fate free half & half for heavycream.It's very interesting to read about your grandparents and village :).I have had kollu rasam.That's the only dish i make with kollu.I'll try yours nextime i buy kollu.:)Congratulations to your daughter and Convey my best wishes to her :).

Wonderful recipes. Congrats on your daughter on getting the Scholar Recogntion award. I am going to India in the last wek of May, will be visiting Pondichery this time. Lived in chennai for more than 20 years but never visited Pondi, :)Vandana

Hi Asha,That was a lot of info abt puducherry, it's bn one of my fav. holiday destinations in the recent times. Bisque looks very healthy, the funnel cake is something unusual...nice one.Nothing like our homeland dishes though. hurli dishes look very yummm...I fell for the hurli kattu looks very tempting with rice and tuppa. Nice read abt your childhood years and the lovely village atmosphere. It made me nostalgic of my yearly visits to my grandma's halli mane in M'lore. me and my cousins were such brats ;) playing the whole day,picking fallen mangoes, plucking cashew fruits ....ooo those days were so much fun! Congratulations to Trisha, it's a great moment for ur family enjoy! All the best to her too! God Bless.*must tell u uppinkai sari hoitu, it's almost getting over. Thanks for everything u've been very patient.Happy blogging and keep inspiring us!TC

after seeing hurali kattu feeling like preparing now itself,I think it is similar to bassaru but thick right?Naanu hurali nenesolla , I pressure cook dried hurali, it cooks faster, if you soak it will take long time to cook,Only for sprouting i soak, else no need to soak, try it,

Asha, that was a great story about your paternal grandparent's farm. It was lovely to read. I also saw Mistress of Spices and thought it was ok. I loved all the beautiful spices though! I just bought The Palace of Illusions written by the same author. I was told by a friend of our Nana that it is the Mahabharat written from Panchaali's perspective. Hopefully its a good one!

Mamatha, almost like Bassaru, but boiled to paste, can keep for longer time. You cook dry Huruli without soaking? Must try that. I thought Huruli is too hard if not soaked unlike Hesarukalu,interesting. Thanks for the tip! :)

Jamie, that book sounds very interesting, I will look for that.Love those kinds books or books based on the epic stories. Thanks girl! :)

Reading all your post, remembered my visit to village during my summer holidays. it used to be so much fun and green:-). I miss all that now. Love that butter squash Bisque. Hurali usli and kattu is our fav..I don't soak the hurali, i deirectly pressure cook it. Mudde is a must when i make this. Yumm. Altogether it was a nice flash back memories of the village.Thanks.

Congrats to Trisha. We were in chennai for 6 months last yr and had plans to visit Pondi but that never happened. Have heard lots and lots of lovely stuff abt the place and it's on my places to visit list now.As usual, nice post.

Madhu, Anoop was just okay, I think he will be gone today along with Lil, Simon was nasty to him again!Yup, Bollywood and Hollywood style just her other "Bride and Prejudice" movie, it's okay to watch once, not that good! :)

N, I will check the mail tomorrow, got to go and get Tushar home in few mins. Yes, we go to Indian store once in 3 mnts, so buy truck load of beans, veggies and stuff!:DBosque can be made with Carrots and potato, or even Gobi, flexible! :)

Smitha, Pondi does sound like fun city to visit, never visited myself! :)

Hi Asha! Good to see you again with an awesome collection of recipes! I wanted to write about each dish separately, but there would be no space for me finish it! :D So, btw, the bisque dish (new name, lol!) looks completely droolworthy and rich in texture! I wanna eat it without having to cook! :D Funnel cake is just awesome! Btw, consistently, all your pictures are really great! I'm really getting inspired by your spirit! :)Thanks for the puducherry info! :)See you next week!

Congrats to your daughter! Bisque is creamy and tempting and fresh herbs from garden...sweet smelling! Pondicherry is just a 2 hour travel for us from our place. Visiting farms must be fun and peaceful! Those are great memories(^_^) Kattu is a wonderful dish! But I don't know whether horse gram's available in the Indian stores here. Usuli is time saving!

Ha what can I say, beeing native of Pondy, u gave a great info and the house pic, seems to be a new house const. I love the village experience, never got much opportunity, my grand-parents (mater and pater) were both in same street. So No travelling and in midlle of city!About the food, fennel cake, is quiet popular in Disney Califo, People go craze with topping a tons of whip cream!The huruli looks like a chocolate melt! I can drink it.Congrats to Trishu!

Loved reading the long post and Shama`s description of her grandparents place. Delicious recipes. My daughter loves the Funnel cakes at the salmon days festival here....so its true Obama carries the statue of Hanuman.

Hey congrats proud mama :) Was this the celebratory dinner...looks that way! I like the way you list the movies and books of the week. I wanted to see Maine Gandhi ko nahin maara. My husband is a fan of ANupam Kher when he not acting silly :)

Please convey congratulations to Trisha. She is a bright young lady indeed.I am mesmerised with the way you cook, the halli oota is very inspiring. Even we got Huruli Kaalu Happala this time from india. I make Usli all the time, but the Kattu is new. All the dishes look yummy!

loved reading about your holidays in the village, asha! I could almost picture the fields, very nice read.I normally avoid the bisque just because it is loaded with cream and don't quite like the taste - love your idea of adding buttermilk! As alwyas, lovely array of food.

All in a day!! So much to ogle as always, Asha - I enjoyed this post a lot. Very informative and diverse! Everything looks great and sauce you made is new to me. I discard the water usually and am glad to have a healthy dish out of it!

Bee, we always have 2% milk and low fat Buttermilk at home but most of the time I don't (except Evaporated milk) buy fat free stuff, tastes awful! Heavy cream does scare me, but use it occasionally, tastes good! :)

HC, I love Anupam Kher too, great actor. He acts in lot of silly movies, I guess to make some money! :)

Harini, always a week's worth of dishes here. Kids don't eat Kattu and Usli etc, so I have give them something else to eat that day! :D

Loved the village story Asha, I remember the sugarcane fields my grand father owned and making of the bella in the fields adding peanuts and hurigadale, thanks for taking me back to my childhood...My MIL has soaked huruli yesterday, I may as well give her ur recipe to try :P

You Halli Mane Huruli Kattu is a hit! I've heard mom & aunt talk about these dishes (they are from Mysore) that they had at friends places - but I have never tasted! Thanks a ton for sharing. Now I will probably hunt for horse gram to try and make Halli Mane oota in Sydney!!!

You are really one adventourous person trying things like funnel cake at home :-) I have seen this at fares in the US, and just the thought of the calories scared me away!!

Absolutely love the halli mane oota......so good to read abt your ajji mane,it brings back such good memories.Maybe I should post raagi mudde with chicken curry for the event.My tatha was Gowda too lol.I dont like Ashwariya too pretentious....Congrats to Trisha,nice dress!

Wow Asha, Nice reading about ur grandparent's farm.. I too had close association to farms. Simplicity of life in the villages is very pronounced and that became obvious to me when i grew up. Thanks for sharing your daughter's pics. COngratulations to her.

That bisque looks so pretty & tempting. My husband loves funnel cakes and always gets them - never occurred to me to try at home. I've been meaning to get my hands on kollu - have read such good things abt it. Thanks for this authentic recipe from your ajji.

Asha avare,I am a big big fan of your blog. Along with all the yummy recipes, you have a great writing style!! Nimma huraLi saaru and your haLLi nenapu both bring back some nice memories of my own :) I have made a small collection of karnataka food bloggers. Please take a look.thanks

horse gram saaru - ulava charu is quite a famous dish at my place.vl post minelived ur childhood days vicariouslysure are great memoriesi die for coconut water and my childhood has lots of jaggery and crystal sugarbtw convy my congrats to trisha

Thanks Keshi girl, hugs! :)Yeah, it is already humid and hot here, same continues for the next whole week. There is a bush fire going on in the east coast, so we are into almost Summer I guess. Be warm there! :)

Hearty congratulations to Trisha!Butternut squash bisque looks inviting! Never tried any recipes with butter squash :) Funnel cake is the one i was waiting to try (eggless). Looks lovely! I always buy a plate for myself when i go for our county fair every july! And halli mane huruli kattu is new to me.. never heard of it! Looks wonderful and very nice presentation! Love all of them! 85F? Waiting for such temperatures here..Have a nice weekend!

Congrats Trisha! ALL THE BEST for everything u do!loved all the dishes, Huruli is Kulith isn't it?I will very soon have one dish with kulith coming up! The funnel cake is an American version of our Jalebi sans the syrup! hahaha! Warm weather is here! in Los Angeles last week we had 93F, I'd take the low 60-70 anyday! PHEW.. roasted!!!

Congrats to Trisha..you must be such a proud mom ! The bisque and the funnel cake look so lovely...my mom makes something like the huruli kattu, but it doesnt look that thick...your posts are so interesting...make a real nice read...

Wonderful post Asha! So much that I don't even know where to begin. Congratulations to your daughter for her awards!

I liked hearing about your grandfather and all the feeding going on. And I agree that it was about time that we had a global president. That gives Obama such a fresh perspective on everything. Well, have a great weekend Asha. It's going to be in the 80's here this weekend too!

You must be a proud mom,congrats to Trisha:).There is so much to read in your post,thanks for taking time to educate us about the wonder and splendor of pondicherry and your serene village.The food looks fabulous as always:)

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